By Samuel Stolton, EURACTIV
Europe’s online marketplaces should not be controlled by a handful of dominant gatekeeper platforms, the EU’s digital chief Margarethe Vestager has said, referring to her bid to reign in the market dominance of tech giants through the EU’s forthcoming new competition tool.
Opening the German EU presidency’s ‘competition days’ on Monday (September 7), Vestager shed some light on the objectives of the upcoming Digital Services Act, which is on course to be unveiled before the close of the year.
“These new powers, they would go hand in hand with expansive regulation,” Vestager said, referring to ex-ante regulation set to feature in the new legislation, which should lay the ground rules for fairer and more balanced digital markets.
“Europe’s online marketplaces should be vibrant ecosystems, where startups have a real chance to blossom. They shouldn’t be closed shops, controlled by a handful of gatekeeper platforms,” she added.
New Competition Tool
Vestager has previously charted the Commission’s new competition tool as being necessary to reign in the power of the digital platforms in an environment where firms harbouring significant network effects have too much control over the markets that smaller businesses rely on.
The modernisation of EU competition rules to make them ‘fit for the digital age’ was a priority Vestager was tasked with by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the start of her mandate.
